Deciphering the Public Interest: Contingent Valuation as a Participatory Planning Tool

This paper considers the increased application of contingent valuation (CV) methodology as a tool for measuring collective preference. Such an approach could help decipher the public interest regarding large urban development projects and confront the challenges raised by the use of unclear public interest rhetoric in the context of contemporary boosterism. The CV methodology is compared to more traditional means of evaluating public preference (political processes and traditional public participation). The literature offers two approaches that apply CV methodology in a participatory planning context. A critique of each is provided, and a new alternative is proposed for enhancing participatory planning through the use of CV.